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Weekly Media Update 2010-11
Monday March 22nd - Sunday March 28th 2010
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
April 01, 2010

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Free the airwaves FEARS that the authorities are attempting to circumvent genuine media reform were reignited with the news that ZBC is forging ahead with plans to launch a new national television station, ZBCTV 2, without any indication that it is attempting to reform its existing inept and biased television "service". This so-called "entertainment" station, which The Herald (30/3) said briefly appeared on air on March 26th on a trial run, is an attempt to seduce Zimbabwean viewers away from external satellite television services that provide viewers with more professional, fair and entertaining programming than ZTV's crude and dull diet.

But it will not satisfy Zimbabweans' information needs. Neither will it bring diversity to the broadcast media which is still monopolized by the ZANU PF controlled "public" broadcaster despite a Supreme Court ruling 10 years ago declaring its monopoly unconstitutional.

This illegal monopoly will not be annulled by the addition of another ZBC station. It can only be brought to an end if the government complies with the terms of the GPA, which calls for a "free and diverse" media, and allows independent broadcasters onto the airwaves to give viewers, and listeners, the opportunity to choose which radio and television channels they tune into for their news and entertainment.

Without this essential reform to Zimbabwe's suffocating broadcast environment, the nation will remain a captive audience of ZBC's illegal monopoly, and the broadcaster will never be challenged by professional competition to reform its incompetent and tiresome output.

Most importantly of all, no amount of new newspapers will qualify Zimbabwe's media environment to be described as "free and diverse" while the airwaves remain under the control of partisan political interests. The government must truly "free the airwaves" before the nation can believe a media environment exists that is conducive to the holding of any credible elections.

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